The IRS dropped Notice 2026-11 today, alongside IR-2026-06. The headline: 100% bonus depreciation is back, permanently, for property acquired after January 19, 2025.
This is the single most consequential tax architecture development of the year for healthcare households building ownership. Of everything we'll cover in this section, this is the post worth slowing down for.
Quick refresher on the mechanism. When you acquire investment property, the building depreciates over decades. Slow. Boring. A cost segregation study breaks that property into components — flooring, appliances, fixtures, landscaping, certain mechanical systems — that depreciate on faster schedules. Bonus depreciation lets you take a chunk of that accelerated depreciation in year one instead of spreading it out.
At 100% bonus, the year-one paper losses on a meaningful rental can offset a real chunk of W-2 income if your household qualifies under the right material-participation rules. Those paper losses don't change what the property is actually doing. They change what you keep.
The phase-down that started in 2023 made every cost seg conversation feel like it had a sunset clock on it. With OBBB making this permanent, that pressure is gone. The structure is durable again.
Three things worth thinking through with your CPA:
- If you acquired property in 2025, what is the case for running (or rerunning) a cost segregation study this year? The numbers may have moved.
- If you are underwriting a 2026 acquisition, what does the deal look like with 100% bonus depreciation in the model? Some deals that didn't pencil before pencil now.
- What does your current entity structure do with the paper losses? Not every structure passes them through cleanly to your personal return. Worth confirming.
To be clear: this isn't a signal to rush out and acquire a rental. The math on a real, well-underwritten deal got materially better. The strategy still requires the right asset, the right financing, the right management, and the right tax architecture.
For a high-W-2 healthcare household that has been on the fence waiting on bonus depreciation guidance, the answer is now in. Worth bringing to your next CPA conversation.
— John